


The Deep Blue Sea

by AuthorInDistress



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Deep Blue Sea AU, Drabble, M/M, Minor Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-19
Updated: 2015-04-19
Packaged: 2018-03-24 20:37:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3783571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthorInDistress/pseuds/AuthorInDistress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I watched the Deep Blue Sea, and it made me want to write. This is a drabble based on the scene where Susan electrocutes the Shark, only twisted slightly to fit the Avengers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Deep Blue Sea

**Author's Note:**

> I really see the Avengers when I watch Deep Blue Sea. Susan is so similar to Tony in many ways and Carter shares Steve qualities too.

 

* * *

 

 

Natasha strides through the doorway angrily, pushing past Tony’s shoulder as she goes. Tony only stumbles a little at her push and he waits until she’s gone before walking inside himself and closing the door behind him. Steve’s by the window now, wrapping gauze around his wrist and resolutely ignoring him in favor of watching for any disturbances in the darkened water outside.

“Hey.” Tony offers softly, his wet hair sticking in clumps and blocking half his vision. He shakes his head to move them, waiting for an answer that he’s probably not going to get, “I - um.” He clears his throat, looking away for a moment.

“Nat’s gone to get ready.” Steve says, bluntly, “We’ll be leaving in a minute so you should go stay with the others and wait until we’re back.”

“Steve - ”

“I don’t have time to chat, Stark.”

At the use of his last name, Tony blinks sharply, swallowing but pressing on anyway, “I know that. I just - I needed to - ” He sighs, looking down, “What you said to me. Back there? You were right.” Steve pauses, for just a second, rolling the gauze off and on again to tighten it enough for what he needs, “I didn’t think it - I thought - I thought that if I could make it work that - that any risks would be worth it. I never thought anyone would get hurt, I - ”

“But that’s just it, isn’t it. You _don’t_ think.” Facing him full-on now, Steve exhales through his nose, not quite meeting his gaze, “You only see the big picture, it’s how you work. You don’t focus on the little people patching it all together for you, you only look for the endgame.”

“That’s not true.” The cold air seeps into Tony’s bones, his wetsuit already drenched and stuck to his skin with sea water, “I was doing this, all of this, for the little people.”

“Dammit, Tony, people are _dead_ because of this! Industry workers, friends. Maybe even us soon.”

“I know that, I just - I _never_ meant for any of this to - “ He stops, clenching his teeth, far too worked up to even get the words out when it really mattered, “I came to tell you that you were right. I was stupid and I got people killed because of it. And I _don’t_ want you to be one of them.” Steve sighs again, lowering his head, “Don’t go out there. Please.” At the plea, Steve actually shuts his eyes and for a moment neither of them speak at all.

“The main floor isn’t as flooded as everywhere else and I won’t be alone. If I don’t go we’re trapped down here.” Pushing himself away from the window, Steve looks at him and repeats himself a lot more firmly, “Go stay with the others until we’re back.” And then he pushes past just as Natasha had and he’s gone.

Tony chews over his bottom lip, sucking in a shaky breath when he releases it and stares out the window instead, trying to stop the sudden influx of emotion before it reaches it’s inevitable breaking point. His eyes feel warm and they sting when he blinks. He closes them and turns away, missing the darkness that covers the window for the briefest of moments as something large swims by.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Hey, hey, woah, where the hell do you think _you’re_ going?” Clint pushes himself off from the wall, following Tony down the corridor toward the sealed emergency doors at the end, “Tony!”

Tony doesn’t stop, but he at least answers, his voice cracking from the slight fear of what he’s about to do, “Everything that was ever worked on in this building is in my old office. I can’t just leave it there.”

Clint grabs at his arm, spinning him around, “You crazy? It’s 4ft of water out there and we don’t even know how many of those things there are. You won’t make it.”

Tony yanks his arm back, “I can’t leave it behind here. If I do, everyone who died here died for nothing.”

“You get it back, they still died for nothing. You don’t even know if it works.”

Tony glares at him, biting back his own assurances that it does, he’s seen it, and turns to leave again anyway. “I’m still going.”

Clint hangs back, folding his arms across his chest, “You go out that door, I’m not following you.”

“Good.”

 

~

             

The water is severely, _achingly_ cold and the swimsuit that he has on does barely anything to keep him warm enough as he wades through it. He’s shivering uncontrollably from both the waist-high water and the needling build-up of dread that one of those creatures would find him here. His left arm is kept outstretched, patting the wall beside as he walks as slow as possible down the flooded corridor, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention to himself.

He moves around the corner, freezing out of fear when he catches sight of some bulks in the water before relaxing after they bounce against each other. Just pieces of equipment. His heart hammers in his chest still, his reactor the only thing that’s lighting the way forward while the lights above only flicker on-and-off, and it isn’t enough to let him see everything all at once. So much could slip past unnoticed and it’s that thought that scares him so much.

His office door’s open when he finally reaches it and with the electricity on the fritz as it is, it’ll be tough to close it afterward. He’ll need to be in-and-out as fast as possible. Out in the middle of the ocean as the 17th Stark Biology Facility is, most of his work had been on waterproof electrics or just plain paper. Most of that paper is now possibly ruined from the water anyway, but the important stuff is in the safe. He wades toward it, his eyes darting all over the place as he twists to let the only light shine in every dark area around him. Everything glows an ominous blue and each breath is a struggle from how cold he is, a shaky exhale each time.

His fingers shake as he presses the numbers in for the code and he pants into the deathly silence, flinching bodily when a spark flashes near him - hopelessly frightened that any broken wires may fall into the water while he stands there. Electrocution is no way to go.

The safe clicks open and he immediately shoves his hand inside and scoops out the plastic-covered hard drive, holding it tight as he turns around to leave.

The door creaks against the water pushing into it and as he moves toward it the reactor lights his hands and a coffee table to his left. There’s a shadow beside it too and he focuses the light onto that as a precaution, squinting to look closer and praying that it’s nothing.

But then it moves.

“Shit - !” He scrambles to the right, hearing the splashes of it’s tail as it swims toward him, and he slips over the metal floor, falling backward into the water. Panic stabs at him as he blinks into the darkness, the reactor’s light whirling all over the place as he struggles to both get up and to catch a glimpse of where the creature's gotten to. It’s yellow eyes reflect the light just as it jerks into his view and he forces himself to surface, sucking in a breath and swimming as fast as he can away from it. His legs knock against lab equipment that’s either bobbing or has sunk from the weight and it slows him down far too much but there’s the lab table at the far end that spurns him on. It’s bolted and higher than the water, he just needs to _get_ to it.

“Come on - !”

The creature’s head rears above the surface behind him and then as suddenly as it had come, it’s gone. Tony doesn’t stop swimming even so, just in case, and he reaches the table with the hard drive still gripped tight in one hand. He tosses it on first, grabbing onto the ledge to try and haul himself up but his hands are wet and the surface is slippery. He can’t hold on for long and his fingers slip off only a second later, making him fall right back into the water.

He gasps for air when he rises, looking around quickly for any sign of the creature as panic practically fills him from the inside out. A yellow-taped box at the far corner rolls in the water when a shadow beneath it surges past. “God. Oh God.” Reaching for the table again, Tony scrabbles for a good grip, his fingers digging into a rubber-coated cord as he stretches further. He uses it to pull himself up, his legs kicking in the air as he struggles to get up there fast enough, hearing the splashing as the damned creature comes closer but he still _makes_ it.

He gulps in air, panting loudly and squashing himself against the wall behind, grabbing onto the harddrive with both hands and watching carefully for the water nearest his feet. The table isn’t huge but it’s still above water and that’s safe. For now anyway. He can’t stay here. Not when it knows where he is, and not when it’s clearly as smart as he’s seen them to be already. He needs a way out, he needs a plan, a -

The creature surfaces just before him, it’s teeth latching onto the edge of the table as he screams out his shock, holding onto his knees to keep his legs as far from it’s mouth as possible. When it realises that it can’t quite reach, it stops it’s chewing, ducking back into the water threateningly slowly.

Tony gasps as he sits there, looking around for something to use to help him out of this situation. His hands edge backward until he finds the cord again and he stiffens. Plan. Swallowing, he reaches behind for the collar of his swimsuit and zips it down to his lower back. It’s insulated, he knows from the designs, and he pulls it off and folds it just as a larger splash from the same corner alerts him to the creature coming in faster for another go.

“Come on. Come on, you fucker.” He steps onto the suit, curling his toes in, and yanking the cord from the wall. It sparks as he holds it up and he grits his teeth, still shaking from the cold but he tries to stand as still as he can anyhow. Determined. He is not going to die like this. Not to something like this, not if he can help it.

Swimming toward him, the creature raises it’s ugly head again and Tony sees it properly for the first time. It’s black, completely black all over, and it has it’s mouth open to show it’s similarity to what would probably be the prehistoric shark. He watches the teeth, watches as it comes closer, and when it starts to rise a little higher to propel itself upward, he shoves the cord down into the water.

Electricity sparks everywhere and the creature howls as it’s shocked, moaning and thrashing in the water. Tony slams himself against the wall, as far from it as possible, shutting his eyes and turning his face away until he knows that it’s over. On its back now, the creature floats over the water, the electricity shorted out by the end that it’d be useless if it decides to come back to life. He places a hand on it’s nose to check anyway and pushes it further away when it doesn’t move, the adrenaline that had been pumping through his body before now leaking out of him until he feels utterly exhausted.

His throat is bone-dry, ironic considering most of him is sodden, and he focuses on getting a drink once he’s out of here. He dresses to leave and with the swimsuit back on, he slides into the water, watching the creature for any sign of movement as he passes it to head for the door.

He barely gets there, however, when he realises that half the ripples around him aren’t being caused _by_ him. Oh God, no. Not another one. Please. He holds the hard drive tight, backing away and almost crying out when his ankle knocks into something. There’s nothing around that he can use, nothing to fight with.

“Tony?”

For a moment, he doesn’t understand, but then relief pours over him in waves. “Oh thank God.” He moves forward through the water, pushing past the door until he can see the torch-light that Steve had brought with him, ” _Steve_.”

Steve spins around at the sound of his voice and he immediately grabs him by the arms, harsh in his anger, “What the hell were you thinking? Are you _insane?_ ”

“I’m - “ Tony chokes. He can’t quite get past the fact that Steve had survived going to the main floor to open a way out for them, and he stammers an explanation out as best he can when that thought overwhelms him, “I - I had to get the research out, I couldn’t - what you said about the little people. Those workers, they made this possible, I couldn’t just leave it, I have to - I couldn’t - ” He swallows, ducking his head, “The money I make on this has to go to their families, I can’t let them die for nothing, they - “

“Christ Tony.” Steve pulls him forward and practically crushes him in a hug, “God, I thought you’d gotten yourself killed.” He kisses his forehead then, holding him tight, and Tony lets himself have this, closing his eyes and finally realising what he’d just done.

“I killed one.”

Steve looks down at him, frowning, “What?”

“I killed one of them. Electrocuted it.”

Shock fills Steve’s eyes first before concern takes over, “So you were attacked then.” And now he looks him over for any signs of injuries.

Tony lets him, mostly because he’s so beyond happy that Steve had even come to look for him, “I thought you were mad at me.”

“I _am_ mad at you. But you - God Tony, I was so scared. I thought you’d _die_ and I thought you’d die thinking I hated you. I don’t - I don’t hate you. Okay?” Tony nods, numbly, “You know that. I don’t. You drive me crazy, in bad ways as much as good, but I don’t - ” Steve sighs, shutting his eyes for a moment, and Tony eventually just slides his arms down from where they had latched around his shoulders and kisses him slowly.

“I’m okay.” He assures him softly.

“I’m okay.”

“Yeah. Yeah you are.” The torch lights their way as they turn back toward the emergency doors, “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

Tony nods again and as they wade, he relishes in having Steve’s arm around him again, focuses on the fact that he had still come for him despite everything.

And he smiles.

.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm Tony-in-distress on tumblr, come say hi! :)


End file.
